


The Waves

by AtThePriceOfOblivion



Category: IV:W, In Vein, In Vein: Walpurgisnacht
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, I refuse to tag the relationship because the names are unfortunate, I'm taking these characters and running, Multi, V:TM, Vampire: The Masquerade - Freeform, non-con ghouling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-11 10:42:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20544830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtThePriceOfOblivion/pseuds/AtThePriceOfOblivion
Summary: Elsa struggles with her feelings and relationship with Anna. Picks up right around end of season 1/beginning of season 2.(Based off of In Vein: Walpurgisnacht, an Actual Play TTRP podcast using V:TM 5e NOT DISNEY)





	1. Crashing Down

**Author's Note:**

> Absolutely will not make sense if you aren't familiar with the show/ V:TM mechanics. Sorry ao3 formatting is so terrible. Will fix later if possible.

“Look, the two of your are sitting at the fireplace, tending to it.”

Elsa looks up from the drawing. “Okay… but what does this even mean? Vampires hate fire, and we don’t even have a fireplace!”

“Whoa, you know the drill by now. Since when have Maria’s visions ever been literal?” Dallas walked over form where she was leaning against the bar, holding her hand out for the drawing. Elsa handed it over, still looking towards Maria. She wasn’t looking _at_ her, really, more like _through_ her.

As Maria watched Elsa, her own face began to fall. “I mean, it doesn’t look like a bad thing! Look, you both are smiling! Do you just not like the drawing? It looks so much better than before, don't you think?”

“Yeah, Elsa, she used colored pencils this time and everything.” Dallas looks over the illustration closely, a smirk forming on her lips. “At least you and Anna look happy in this one.”

Elsa returns her gaze to Maria as the last prophecy is mentioned. She shudders a bit at the thought of Max sawing her head off- ending her unlife in lovingly crafted detail by Maria. Attempting to reassure her coterie mate, Elsa offers one of her signature dazzling smiles.

“Well, maybe it means that last one won’t happen! Besides, the drawing itself is very good, Maria. You are getting a lot more creative with your work.”

At the kind words, Maria perks up a bit. “Thank you! I thought maybe using color would help make the meaning clearer to the person receiving it, but it doesn’t look like it did its job too well.”

Dallas, handing the drawing back to Elsa says, “It looks wonderful, Maria. Even if it didn’t have the effect you wanted. Elsa, are you going to tell Anna about this?” Elsa rolls her eyes at the question, folding up the paper to stick in her pocket.

“Dallas, come on. She doesn’t even know vampires exist, doesn’t even know she’s a Ghoul. Do you really think I’m just gonna casually tell her one of my friends can see the vague future?”

Dallas grimaces and shakes her head.“You’re telling me she drinks your blood every month and doesn’t even question it?” Elsa gives Dallas a quick glance before looking away very pointedly and busying herself smoothing out her dress. “Oh god, no, Elsa, you didn’t!” Dallas says, a look of horror dawning on her face. Elsa starts to move away from her, creating just a bit of distance between the two.

“I may have… not told Anna she drinks my blood every month.” Following Elsa’s conditional confession is a shocked and uncomfortable silence. Dallas stares at Elsa in horror.

“What do you mean, you ‘May Not Have’ told her?!”

“I mean I didn’t tell her! I mix my blood with a drink every time!”

“Elsa!”

“What! You didn’t care when I ghouled Peter!”

“Yeah, but Peter’s a criminal! He broke into your house and stalked you! That was more cleaning up a mess than anything else. From what you told me about meeting her, you picked her out and preyed upon her specifically!”

“It’s not like I ruined her life, Dallas! She can still go outside, still live her life!” Elsa snapped, her eyes wide wide and her mouth twisted into a grimace. Maria, seemingly forgotten by the two, shank back closer to the door.

“Didn’t you though? She’s your slave now, Elsa, and she doesn’t even know it! Yeah, for now she still lives her university life during the day, but only due to your _Mercy_.” Dallas’s voice twists at the last word mockingly. “At any point you could tell her to drop everything and she would have to.” Dallas matched Elsa’s anger, point for point. If she could bristle her hair she would. Her hand clutched the back of the bar chair, willing her claws to stay in. She would hate to re-re-upholster the chairs.

Elsa rolls her eyes, sarcasm dripping off her words. “Oh, I’m sorry Dallas, are you suggesting I _turn_ her? Like that would be so much better.”

“Yes, it would! At least she would have some sort of agency! As a ghoul se has to obey anything you say. I can’t believe you’re just stringing her along like this, making her think you’re her girlfriend- just using her for your own benefit.”

Elsa’s voice drops dramatically.“I’m not stringing her along.”

“What?”

“I said, I’m not stringing her along, Dallas!”

Dallas’ anger quickly turns to disgust. Letting go of the chair, she makes her way to the door. Elsa calls after her. “Dallas! Where are you going?” Keeping on hand on the door handle, Dallas turns back towards Elsa.

“I’m going for a run. Maybe see if I can find Jaeger. What I’m going to suggest _you_ do if think about what you just said. If you really actually care for Anna, there’s better ways to do this.” Catching sight of Maria by the door, Dallas’ gives her a remorseful look. “I’m sorry, Maria.”

Maria shakes her head, looking very uncomfortable. “No, I’m just gonna go too. See if I can meet up with Ylva.”

As the door closes behind the two, Elsa picks up the nearest object and hurls it across the room. She watches it shatter against the wall, feeling none the better for having done it. With one hand balled into a fist, she shrieks, slamming it into a table- holding just enough back as to not break the table completely in half. As she pulls her hand back, there’s still a clear indent of her fist.

Before she can cause any more destruction, Elsa makes a phone call- thankful that she had sent Peter away on errands earlier that night. On the other end of the line, a voice picks up, sounding hopeful and a little too eager. Anna didn’t have too many friends, and the ones she did have didn’t call this late at night.

“Hallo?”

“Anna! Its Elsa, my dear. How are you?”

“I’m great! Always glad to hear from you.” A wicked smile passed over Elsa’s face. Always just what she wanted to hear.

“Oh good! I actually called hoping you could come over tonight. I know its getting a bit late but I just _really_ wanted to see you.” Right now, it was probably her blood she wanted more. Anna just had the type of blood to calm Elsa down. It was always a more relaxing time with the redhead- despite what the stereotypes like to suggest.

“Yeah, that's not a problem, I can come over. I dont have classes until later tomorrow. But Elsa, are you okay? Did something happen? You sound… tense.”

Elsa sighed.

“Well, yes. Dallas and I had a little disagreement over something and it's gotten me a little heated. Really can’t hide anything from you, Anna.”

“I’d like to think I know my girlfriend well enough at this point. I’ll be right over.” Elsa could hear the smile the girls voice over the phone.

At the word “girlfriend”, something inside Elsa twisted, and she knew it wasn’t just the thought of the blood that caused it.


	2. Staring Down the Barrel of a Hundred Tons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's another vandalizing of the club; Anna sees something she was never supposed to

The club has continued to operate as normal, even with the visual tension between Elsa and Dallas. More nights than not, Dallas woke up and immediately walked out the door. This behaviour wasn’t ideal given the recent events surrounding the Berlin Wall- Not that Elsa was necessarily doing anything on her part to improve the situation either. The thing to pull them back together, unfortunately, was another vandalizing of the club. 

“Useless waste of breath! Disgusting punks…” Dallas could hear Elsa working herself up as she rounded the corner, Jo and Jaeger in tow. She took in the scene in front of her: Peter and another employee scrubbing at the grafitti while Elsa looked on, coming up with more creative insults as the moments passed. Curiously enough to Dallas, Anna was clinging to Elsa’s arm.

“What’s all this now?” Jo pushes her way forward, getting a closer look at the writing. Peter looks up and nods at her as the steps behind him, on to be ignored. “Can’t be the same people- thought you took care of that lot.”

“Uh yeah, twice by my count.” Dallas says, crossing her arms. Her and Jaeger follow up behind Jo. Jaeger frowns as he gets a clearer look at the words. Dallas squints, racking her brain for the limited knowledge of German she has, trying to figure out what the words in front of her meant.

Anna looks from Jo to Dallas to Elsa.

“What do you mean ‘took care of?’” Elsa shoots a look at the three of them. Jo pretends not to notice and Dallas rolls her eyes. 

“Well, Anna, you weren't around at that time, but last time this happened we got the police involved and they managed to track down who had been responsible. Speaking of, could you be a dear and check in with Teagan at the door? I need to know if they’ve seen anything I should know about.” Dialing up the charm, Elsa laid a hand on the girls cheek, forcing her to meet her gaze. Anna frowned but nodded, making her way to the front entrance to the club.

Elsa set her hands on her hips and turned to face the group.

“Can you guys maybe not say that shit in front of my girlfriend?”

Jo snorts, not turning away from the wall.

“She’s your ghoul, not your girlfriend. If you sleep with her that's your business but I don’t understand what game it is you’re trying to play.”

“Jo,” Dallas warns, “I already had this conversation with her, there’s no point.”  
“Oh will you two just shut up! I’m tired of everyone criticizing my unlife choices.”

This finally broke Jo’s attention form the wall. She stalked closer to Elsa, menace growing in her eyes. 

“And who exactly were you just talking to?” In the background, Dallas facepalms and Jaeger drops his head back and groans.

“You, Jo. I asked for help, and I won't be mocked or spoken down to in my own haven.” Elsa didn’t flinch as Jo neared her. They lock eyes for a moment before Jo turns away, focusing her attention to the wall once more. Eager to move past that particular exchange, Dallas speaks up.

“So what does this say? I’m getting bits and pieces but I’m sure the literal translation isn’t going to cut it.”

“It’s just some derogatory language aimed at you and Elsa.” Jaeger finally speaks up from beside Dallas. “These words in particular are condemning you and Elsa for your sins against God and humanity.”

“Oh god, they don't know that we’re vampires do they? We haven’t done anything to break the masquerade.” At the mention of the masquerade, Jo snorts again, but otherwise stays silent. Elsa crosses and holds her arms, looking like a chill went through her. She jumps as Ylva appears next to Jo at the wall, acting like she had been a part of the conversation the entire time. Knowing Ylva, she had probably heard most of it. 

“Unfortunately I am very familiar with this rhetoric. My German is not that good, but it is same way they talked in Russia. They think you and Dallas are a couple. And they would see you dead for it.” Ylva stands as tall as her hunchback lets her, meeting mismatched eyes to Elsa’s, then Dallas’ in turn. Elsa shakes her head and _tut-tut-tut’s_in a rather condescending way. 

“So close, yet so far. No offense, Dallas. I love you but we would make quite the terrible couple.” Dallas and Jaeger share a quick look before she smiles and turns back to Elsa.

“Seconded. At first it seemed like a good story to keep our Dads off our backs, but it may just becoming more trouble than it avoided.” As Dallas talks, Jo steps away from the wall, hand resting on her chin. Ylva watches her, face unreadable by default. 

“Jo, you’ve been very quiet. Care to share thoughts with rest of group?” All eyes turn to Jo. She lightly taps her cheek, frowning slightly.

“Ylva, is it me or does this not seem genuine?” Jo says this slowly, as if she’s not quite sure of it herself. Ylva turns back to the wall in consideration. 

Peter and the other worker had long since left, Peter having pulled the unsuspecting mortal back to the club. The buckets remained, a silent promise the work would be finished at a later time. Peter was weird, but he was very good at reading the room. 

“How do you mean ‘not genuine’? A slur is just a slur right? You can't ironically use derogatory language.” Dallas looks to each of the group in turn with a quizzical look. Jaeger shrugs, just as lost as she is in this instance.

“I agree with Dallas. I’m not sure what you two are getting at, but if your little investigation is all and well and over with I’m going back to get Peter so he can finish getting this shit off the wall.” As Elsa turns to go back into the club, she freezes. All eyes go to Elsa, then follow her gaze to Anna. Standing in the alleyway, eyes wide, mouth agape, she’s locked unto Ylva.

“Well, to her credit- she did not scream.” Ylva looks rather amused, completely unbothered by the scene unfolding in front of her. Elsa rushes over to Anna.

“Anna! What are you doing here? How long have you been standing there?” She comes up close to her, purposefully filling her field of vision.

“What.. what’s wrong with her face? Oh my god does she need to go to the hospital?” Anna’s eyes flicker between Elsa’s face to where she knows Ylva is standing behind her. 

“Ah, my friend, No. I am fine. My face is just like this.” Ylva starts to try and reassure Anna, but Elsa quickly changed the conversation.

“Anna, what did Teagan say about what you asked them? Did they see anyone suspicious?” Anna begins to fixate on Elsa exclusively, and reluctantly answers her questions.

“Teagan doesn’t recall seeing anything suspicious, no. They don't think the vandals would bother coming their way anyway.” 

Jo walks up behind Elsa, interrupting the impromptu questioning. 

“Elsa, I’m leaving. Going back to Heidi’s. I’ll follow up on a few leads and let you know.” Jo makes eye contact with Anna and sneers. “You need to stop trying to protect her. You dragged her into this, it’s your responsibility to tell her exactly what this is. I for one refuse to tiptoe around this shit any longer.” As Jo turns to leave, Jaeger gently touched Dallas’ arm, gesturing that he’ll be going with Jo. Dallas nods and moves over to Anna and Elsa. Ylva is nowhere to be found.

“Elsa, please tell me what’s going on. I’m so confused. What was Jo talking about? Why was that girl’s face like that?” Dallas gives Elsa a sympathetic look as Anna starts to freak out.

“I’m here if you want me to be, but you really need to be the one to do this.” Elsa sighs, shoulders dropping. She really didn’t want to be having this conversation, especially not like this.

Anna reaches out and cradles Elsa’s face in her hands.

“Please, Elsa. I’m scared.” her voice catches on the last word; her fear is written all over her face. The poor girls looks as though she may start crying at any moment.

Elsa holds her gaze for a long moment, Anna’s sadness echoing on her own face. She takes Anna’s hands in hers, and leans forward to gently kiss her forehead. 

“I suppose it’s time. Lets go inside, yeah?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Left a little cliffhanger for ya'll :3c
> 
> Check out the podcast on twitter @in_vein_podcast, online at nerdsmith.org/content/in-vein, and anywhere you listen to podcasts

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter didn't even cover what I initially had in store. Having way too much with this idea so look for more on its way soon.
> 
> Check out the podcast on twitter @in_vein_podcast, online at nerdsmith.org/content/in-vein, and anywhere you listen to podcasts


End file.
